Fractal Pancakes

I think they probably require way more talent than I possess to make, but these fractal pancakes (via BoingBoing) are super cool.

Along with the Mobius Bagel, they make a mathalicious (if carb-laden) breakfast.

Home Made Kimchi

If you could pick anyone in the world to teach you how to make your own Kimchi, you could do worse than to pick a Korean grandmother who's been making it for seven decades or so. If you're the type of person who's inclined to ferment their own cabbage and you have access to some Korean ingredients, check out the video below (via GOOD), and then go take a look at the full recipe at CoolHunting.

Kimchi (or Kim Chee) is a fermented Korean dish, usually made with cabbage and/or radishes with dried red chilis. Like many other naturally fermented foods (like yogurt, sauerkraut, and fermented pickles, etc.), it contains bacteria that may have beneficial health effects. It's also low in calories and contains lots of healthy vitamins, so eat up!

Pasta Architects

Ever wonder who is behind the silly shapes in your Kraft Maraconi and Cheese Dinner? Dan Lewis from Now I Know has the inside story. Apparently, the design of these novelty noodles involves quite a lot of design skill as well as IP patent knowledge, and it has quite a high failure rate. Who knew it was so complicated?

Sidenote: If you think this type of thing is interesting, sign up for Dan's daily email, which contains interesting tidbits about all sorts of things, or follow him on Twitter.

(Image: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licensed image from Like_the_Grand_Canyon's photostream)

The Future of Bananas

This is what bananas looked like before humans got involved in their reproduction.

Some of you may know that 50 years ago, although people in the USA were eating bananas, they were a different kind than the ones you're familiar with. That's because at the time, the Gros Michel was the type of banana gown for eating, and almost all bananas for sale were this type, grown on clonal trees. A post over at BoingBoing explains what happened to these bananas, and what will likely happen to the bananas we're enjoying now. (This post was inspired by another at Damn Interesting, also about the sex life of bananas. Go check it out.)

Because we don't like to eat bananas with seeds, humans have selectively bread bananas without them. (The picture above is of a wild banana that has not been subjected to selective breeding by humans.) Unfortunately for the bananas, this makes it difficult to reproduce. Humans make more banana trees by growing a new tree from a cutting of an existing one. This creates a population of banana trees that are all genetically identical - the entire code of their DNA is the same. If these banana trees were human, they would all be identical twins.

In the same way that two humans may not be affected by a disease in the same way, diseases also affect banana trees differently. This variation is due to small differences between individuals. By creating a clonal population of banana trees, we have eliminated this variation. If a disease kills one of these trees, it will kill all of them. This is what happened to the Gros Michel, and it's why you can't find this type of banana anymore. It was wiped out by a fungus known as Panama Disease in the 1950's.

The banana you know today, the Cavendish banana, replaced the Gros Michael after that period. However, the Cavendish today has the same problem the Gros Michael had 50 years ago - they are all clonal plants. A disease called Black sigatoka is laying siege to the Cavendish, and it may not be long before the entire population is wiped out by this disease.

Don't worry too much about future bananas, though. There are many, many varieties of bananas grown around the world, and banana growers have already developed a banana, the Goldfinger, that is resistant to Black sigatoka. These bananas are also a clonal population, so it doesn't mean that they won't be in danger of being wiped out by another disease. The banana-disease arms race will likely continue on into the future, but until then maybe you (or your children) will come to recognize the Goldfinger as your friendly neighborhood banana.

(Image: Inside a wild-type banana, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 image by Warut Roonguthai)

Will red meat really kill you?

A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine correlates eating any type of red meat with a higher risk of mortality. This 20-year study followed 110,000 adults and concluded that eating red meat of any kind may be risky. The lead author of the study, An Pan, said in an interview that "Any red meat you eat contributes to the risk."

Does this mean we all have to stop eating red meat at the risk of dropping dead? Probably not. The authors of the study themselves suggest modest dietary changes (eat red meat a couple times a week instead of every day) rather than red meat abstinence. Despite what may be suggested by many news organizations' headlines, this study does NOT establish a causative relationship between eating red meat and death. Instead, they have correlated these two things. Other factors may be at play.

There are other valid criticisms of the study, or at least limitations on what can be concluded given the data at hand. The authors do not differentiate between unprocessed and processed meat (things like bologna, bacon, and hot dogs) in the study. Since processed meats have already been shown to increase your risks for certain diseases, these specific types of meat may be more to blame than the unprocessed sort. Also, the study relies on self-reported data, which is not always the most accurate way to judge human behavior. Via BoingBoing, a great explanation of the study, what it has found, and what it has not found, is located here. It's recommended reading for all carnivores.

The take home message seems to be that, for now, although we're not certain that eating red meat will harm you, it seems to be correlated with an increased risk of death. We do know that consuming certain types of red meat is likely to increase your risk of certain diseases, so it's a good idea to reduce your intake to no more than a couple times a week, and to balance it out with other types of protein as well as lots of fruits and vegetables, the consumption of which seem to be correlated with good health outcomes.

Since meat is also expensive, calorie-dense, and producing it is environmentally taxing, that seems to be pretty good advice for your health, your wallet, and the environment.

(Image: Beef!, a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 image from Michael Cannon's photostream)

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day everyone... why not celebrate with some Pi pies?

Need a recipe? How about one from a woman who I pretty much view as the queen of pie?

(Image: Pie for Pi Day, a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 image from djwtwo's photo stream)

The Compartmentalization of Violence

Over at BoingBoing, there is a very thought-provoking interview with Timothy Pachirat, who has written a book after going "undercover" at a slaughterhouse in Nebraska entitled Every Twelve Seconds. Rather than the usual expose, his writing addresses how the violence inherent in killing animals for our food on an industrial level is compartmentalized and shielded from society. Although this work is more related to food philosophy than food science, I think it's important enough an issue to think about that I'm blogging about it here.

Pachirat discusses how the actual work of killing cattle at slaughterhouses is broken down into specific tasks, and how the individuals that do each task are separated from each other and the outside world, physically and mentally, using walls, ideology, and language. This separates humans from the violence that is occurring, allowing consumers and even slaughterhouse employees to effectively ignore or believe that they are not responsible for the act of killing. This happens within the slaughterhouse, and, on a larger scale, outside the slaughterhouse where society in general is separated from the nasty work, done mostly by immigrants behind closed doors that few, if any of us, get a glimpse behind.

The issues discussed in this interview and in Pachirat's book raise quite a few uncomfortable questions about industrial meat production. Who is responsible? Is the act of placing responsibility another way to compartmentalize violence perpetrated by an entire society? How does this relate to other acts of violence that occur behind closed doors in order for us to remain "civilized," like torture, inprisonment, and execution? As a consumer of meat myself, I think that it is the responsibility of humans to ask questions about where their food comes from. We must make educated, informed, and well-thought-out decisions about what is okay to eat, and by extension what processes in which we are willing to be complicit. 

(image via BoingBoing)